Henry Homeyer: Saving seeds not just for the diehard gardener

Sunday

Sep 28, 2008 at 3:15 AM

By Henry Homeyer

There are several levels of gardening: beginner, steady intermediate, serious and mad dog. I'm a mad dog. Sometimes it's good to jump up from one category to another. And some activities usually done by serious or mad dog gardeners can easily be done, and with great satisfaction, by beginners.

Saving seeds for next year is one of those activities that anyone can do, but is most often done by the obsessed. Let's start with one of the easiest seeds to save and use: annual poppies.

If you had some annual poppies this year, their seed pods are drying out now. Go collect a few pods and put them in a small plastic bag or an envelope. Once you turn the pod upside down the seeds will fall out, so don't collect any pods that have fallen over, only erect ones. Test a pod to see if tiny black seeds will shake out of it. Store the seeds in a cool, dry spot for planting next year.

I love to plant them in mid-winter: I sprinkle the fine seeds over the snow where I want a few to grow next year, and they do the rest. You may sprinkle 100 seeds to get one plant, but it couldn't be easier.

I save seeds from a few strains of tomatoes each year, and start them indoors under lights, starting in April. Most beginning gardeners don't want to be bothered growing seedlings indoors. But I have a few strains of tomatoes that are worth growing, and are not commercially available, so I save the seeds.

If you read a book on saving seeds you will be told that you need to make a slurry of tomato seeds, let it ferment, and then clean and dry the seeds. Nonsense. I once had a father-in-law who told me to pick the best tomato from a plant, scoop out some seeds and let them dry on a paper towel. I've been doing that for decades. Thanks, Charlie. I write the variety name on the paper towel before I spread out the seeds.

You need to know that modern hybrids are not suitable for seed saving. They will not breed true to form the way the heirloom varieties do, and you might get something that does not resemble the parent plant at all. So you need to know the name of the variety, and then look it up on the World Wide Web.

You will probably find lots of people trying to sell you seeds, but they will also have the information about where it comes from, how long it has been around. And pictures for comparison.

Bill Poland, a farmer who sells at the farmers market in Cornish Flat, N.H., gave me a nice dark-skinned tomato to try, and I liked it a lot. He called a Black Russian. I could have asked him where he bought the seed, but didn't think to. So I Googled Black Russian Tomatoes and learned all about them ¿ it's been grown for at least 100 years, so I know it's not a hybrid. I saved a few seeds and will start them in the spring.

I also grew some paddy rice this year ¿ more about that another day ¿ and I am saving seed so I can do it again next year. The Japanese farmer who taught me how to grow rice in a 5-gallon pail told me to be sure to pick grains that are fully ripe, and to save those that produced early in the fall. That's good advice for any seed saving.

Even with global warming our seasons can be pretty short ¿ some years in my memory have had frost in both in June and in September. So selecting seeds from plants or fruit that mature early in the season is better than selecting those that wait until the end of the season to ripen. Doing so for many generations may help to create varieties that develop faster.

Not all vegetables produce seeds in their first year. Beets, cardoon, carrots, celery, leeks and parsley, for example, go to seed their second year. I worked as a farm hand for three weeks in the summer of 2005 on a big organic farm in Idaho that sells organic seeds, including carrots. Fred Brossy, the farmer, told me that each fall he pulls his seed carrots and stores them in a walk-in cooler. Then he replants them outside once winter is done, and they produce seeds their second year.

If you try this, cut off the tops of the carrots and store them in a cool, humid place where it stays in the 35-50 degree range. Same for beets. I've had both cardoon and parsley overwinter in the garden, but neither are edible their second year.

Last fall I cut the top off a cardoon plant but did not pull the roots. Then I dumped a wheelbarrow full of leaves from the lawn on the spot ¿ not to protect the roots, but just to get rid of the leaves. This spring, much to my surprise, the cardoon (which is a big leafy plant related to artichokes) sprouted when I raked off the pile of leaves. I let it grow, and it began to show unusual proclivities early on. Instead of staying low and bushing out, it grew tall, reaching nearly 5 feet tall. Then it bloomed, producing numerous gorgeous blossoms.

It is in the thistle family, with beautiful blossoms like big thistle heads. I can save those seeds, and supply every reader with several. Just send me a self addressed stamped envelope.

So just do it. Save a few seeds, and plant them next spring. You'll feel like a serious gardener if you do ¿ or maybe even a mad dog gardener.

Henry Homeyer is a gardening coach, consultant and the author of 3 gardening books. His new e-mail address is henry.homeyer comcast.net.